The Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) will join the ‘grand celebrations’ in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, this weekend, for the centenary of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP), one of the all-Ireland denomination’s global mission partners.
The main celebrations will take place at 25,000 seater Civo Stadium in the capital, where a service of thanksgiving will take place, at which the President of Malawi, Dr Lazarus Chakwera, will be the guest of honour. Representing PCI are Rev Stephen McCracken, Convener of the Council for Global Mission and Heather Clements, Convener of the Council’s Global Mission Committee, who will present to the CCAP, on behalf of Irish Presbyterians, a specially engraved commemorative cut glass Galway crystal cross.
Speaking from Malawi, where Mr McCracken was a PCI missionary from 1999-2007, the minister of First Ballymoney Presbyterian Church said, “This will be a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and give thanks to God for the work that CCAP has been doing over the past 100 years.”
During his time in Malawi, Mr McCracken taught in Zomba Theological College, which trains candidates for the CCAP. He continued, “As we have served together, and shared together, the building of God’s Kingdom in Malawi, the celebrations are an occasion, post Covid, to rekindle the longstanding and valued relationship that we have, while seeking God’s way forward in collaborating in mission in central and southern Africa. It will also been an opportunity to consider how, with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we can support and encourage the mission and the ministry of the Church here. This is something that I look forward to exploring with CCAP’s synodal leadership teams in the coming days,” Mr McCracken said.
The General Assembly of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian is comprised of five synods, three in Malawi – the Synods of Livingstonia, Blantyre and Nkhoma – the Synod of Zambia and Synod of Harare in Zimbabwe. Originally, Free Church of Scotland missionaries established a mission called Livingstonia in the north of the country in 1875, (named after David Livingstone who reached what is now Malawi in 1859).
The following year the Church of Scotland set up a mission station in the south and named it after the explorer’s Lanarkshire birthplace, Blantyre. Together they formed the nucleus of the two synods which established the CCAP in 1924. In the 1880s the Dutch Reformed Church in southern Africa sent a mission to the central part of the country. As the Synod of Nkhoma, it joined the CCAP in 1926 followed by the two synods in Zimbabwe (1965) and Zambia (1984). Today the Church has just under 1000 parishes and 2.3 million members.
Speaking from Malawi, Mrs Clements said, “In Psalm 32:11, David writes, ‘Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!’ This weekend’s events will be a great opportunity to sing and celebrate what God has been doing through the CCAP and the relationship that PCI has had with the Church for nearly 70 years.
“Historically PCI’s global mission partners have encompassed a wide range of activities and have had a broad geographical spread as we have sought to work with partner churches, agencies and institutions around the world. Although Irish Presbyterians have served in what is now Malawi since the 1890s, it wasn’t until 1956 that PCI entered into a partnership-in-mission with CCAP, sending Rev Bill Jackson two years later.
“Many have followed in his footsteps, including Stephen, and today PCI’s Volker and JinHyeog Glissmann have been working in theological education based in Blantyre since 2010, while Diane Cusick, following 20 years of service in Malawi, has been working as an early childhood development co-ordinator with the Synod of Zambia, since 2016,” she said.
Mrs Clements continued, “In recent years CCAP has experienced remarkable growth and has its own distinctive traditions of worship and witness, while offering a wide range of social services across its synods. It was a privilege to have been able to welcome Rev Anderson Juma, General Secretary of the Blantyre Synod, along with his colleague, Rev Catherine Makombe, to our General Assembly in June, and learn more about the Church and its ministry. By the same token, it will be a privilege to join with our brothers and sisters in Christ to celebrate the church’s centenary this weekend.”
In the run up to the weekend celebrations, Mrs Clements and Rev Stephen visited the leadership of Blantyre Synod. Following the weekend’s events, Rev Stephen will then go on to the Synods of Livingstonia and Nkhoma, where he will meet their senior leadership teams and PCI mission partners on the ground.
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